Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Politics is the art of the possible.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.

The vice presidency isn’t worth a pitcher of warm piss.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

Envy is the basis of democracy.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.